


In the Company of a Kraken

by snibnoom



Series: Classified Existence [3]
Category: ASTRO (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-04
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-11 05:04:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11707383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snibnoom/pseuds/snibnoom
Summary: Tip #47: Don't let Jinwoo teach magic.  Tip #48: If Jinwoo does try to teach magic, be prepared for the unexpected, and be prepared to handle the aftermath.





	In the Company of a Kraken

Two weeks have passed, and Minhyuk is more than excited that Sanha is returning to their bunker in the middle of nowhere. It took some prodding from Sanha, and Sanha’s mother had requested to meet Jinwoo and Minhyuk (posing as brothers, despite not looking alike). Sanha’s mom had bought it. As soon as Sanha arrived Friday after his guitar lesson, though, Dongmin had left. With Dongmin gone and nobody to restrict Jinwoo’s magic lessons, he had stolen Sanha and disappeared into some room in the bunker. Minhyuk has been wasting time for the last two hours by playing an online video game on one of the four computers in the surveillance room. He gets up and wanders out of the room. The possibility of awkwardness between them isn’t even in his mind. He’s bored, and he knows Sanha will immediately cure his boredom. So, where could Sanha be?

He isn’t in the gym, and he isn’t in Jinwoo and Myungjun’s room. Honestly, he could be anywhere. There are easily more than two dozen rooms in the bunker. Some of those Minhyuk has never been allowed in, either. Instead of looking into every single room like a clingy boyfriend (they aren’t even dating, why is he thinking that word?), Minhyuk makes his way to his and Sanha’s room and flops down on the bed.

And he hears a stifled giggle coming from the bathroom, following by a lot of sloshing water.

Minhyuk immediately slides off the bed. He picks up his hands, holding them in a defensive position in front of himself as he carefully steps closer to the bathroom. There’s another quiet giggle. Is that…?

“Sanha, is that you?”

On the other side of the door, he gasps. Minhyuk represses a smile as he hears a lot of sloshing water and scrambling. Is Sanha taking a bath? Why the giggling? Minhyuk wonders if Sanha has a toy duck or something equally embarrassing with him. Is he making himself a beard out of bubbles? _That’s something Sanha would definitely do_ , Minhyuk thinks.

“I-It’s me!” Sanha stammers.

Minhyuk nods. “You don’t need to get out of the bath for me, it’s fine. Do what you were doing.”

“I’m not bathing,” Sanha says. There’s a muffled gasp and then the door cracks open.

Minhyuk can’t see much, but he sees enough. The entire front of Sanha’s shirt is soaked. He furrows his brows. “Sanha, why are you dripping?”

“I can explain,” Sanha says hurriedly. “I promise, it’s not a big deal. Jinwoo said he knows how to handle it. He’s going to take care of everything tomorrow, so just keep it a secret until tomorrow, okay? I don’t want Jinwoo to get in trouble because of me.”

Jinwoo? In trouble? Minhyuk sighs. “What’s going on?”

Sanha ducks his head and pulls open the door to show the rest of the bathroom. There are several towels on the tile floor, also quite wet. Minhyuk looks at the toilet. He half expects to see it overflowing, but it’s not. Water sloshes out from the side of the bathtub, and Minhyuk gasps.

It’s the pattern of small spikes on the creature that gives it away. There had been a time before, close to two years ago, when Minhyuk, Jinwoo and Myungjun had to take a trip to Sokcho because of this same creature. That’s why Minhyuk knows exactly what he’s staring at. For a moment, he says nothing. He just stares, watching the tentacles flap around in the water. It’s almost _cute_. How young is it? No. Minhyuk shakes his head. That’s not the important part right now.

“Sanha, why is there a miniature kraken in the bathtub?”

Sanha groans and squats suddenly, eyes on the kraken. “I was trying to do magic with Jinwoo,” he says. “I did something wrong, though. I don’t know what, and neither does Jinwoo, but there was suddenly a—” He looks up at Minhyuk. “Did you call it a kraken?”

“Jinwoo didn’t even tell you what it is?” Minhyuk sighs. “Yeah, it’s a kraken.” He steps into the bathroom and leans over the tub. “You see these spikes?” He points, keeping his distance anyway. “There’s four of them on either side, and then one behind them. That’s how you know it’s a kraken. Those spikes will grow as it grows.”

Minhyuk jumps back as a tentacle starts to reach upwards, heading for his wrist. He lets out a short yelp, too. “Jeez, why is it trying to get me?”

“It’s friendly!” Sanha proclaims. He crawls the few feet to the tub and sticks his hand out over the water. Minhyuk watches in terrified awe as a slippery tentacle wraps around Sanha’s wrist. As the small suction pads attach to Sanha’s wrist and then pull off, Sanha just giggles.

Minhyuk shakes his head. “It doesn’t hurt?”

Sanha looks over his shoulder at Minhyuk. “Hurt? Is it supposed to?”

Minhyuk nods. “I think so. I mean, I have a scar because of a kraken, so I’m not too fond of them.”

“Wait, _what_? You have a scar?” Sanha pulls his hand away, but the kraken catches his finger at the last moment. He smiles a little, but Minhyuk can’t understand.

“Yeah, almost two years ago we had to go to Sokcho because there was a small kraken terrorizing the tourists.” Minhyuk frowns. “The only way for us to get it away was to bait it on a boat and go out to sea. The kraken got me before we could do that, though, and I slipped and now I have a scar because of it.”  
——————

Minhyuk sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. “Why are we the ones to come out here and deal with it?” he asked. “Isn’t there anybody out here who can take care of it?”

“Not really,” Jinwoo replied. “Plus, we have Myungjun. Who else has a former Triton running around with them?” At that, Myungjun turned and smirked at Minhyuk.

There’s no way he’d get out of this. Minhyuk dropped his head and watched his feet as he carefully made his way over the uneven planks of the boardwalk. Nobody else was around since the sun had gone down. That was for the best, really. They need to take their time to figure out what to do with this kraken.

It’s a pain in the butt, really. They drove 2 hours as soon as Jinwoo got the call. Bin had to stay behind (“the struggle of being allergic to sunlight,” he had joked), so Minhyuk had been trapped in the car with Jinwoo and Myungjun. Not even blasting music on his headphones and closing his eyes had been enough to distract him from their gross relationship. They obviously thought that he wasn’t aware, though, otherwise they wouldn’t have done it. Most of the time those two were pretty quiet about their relationship. Minhyuk expected to have to put up with it a lot on this small trip to the coast.

And he did. The relationship between Myungjun and Jinwoo wasn’t his biggest problem, though. No, the big problem was the kraken that had tentacles two meters long.

“That’s _small_?” Minhyuk asked on the way to the hotel on their first night. They had just stopped at the beach and gotten a glimpse at the kraken out in the water.

“The average tentacle length for a kraken is six to seven meters long,” Myungjun said. “We’re lucky this one is a small one. Might be a juvenile, though. In about ten years, we might have to come out and take care of it again. But, honestly, why is it here? Kraken are deep sea creatures. The closest I’ve ever heard of one getting is 40 kilometers from shore, so why here?”

“It’s evil and trying to take over the world,” Minhyuk griped. He was not enjoying this trip.

It had taken two very long days to prep their method of taking care of the kraken. There actually were people in the area who knew about it, unlike Jinwoo had said. (“Gross,” Bin had said when Minhyuk told him about the conversation that had very obviously been Jinwoo just complimenting Myungjun.) They had finally found someone who had two boats, and there were people that would take them out. Minhyuk, Jinwoo, and Myungjun wouldn’t be the ones leading the kraken out to the middle of the ocean, but they would have to be on a boat to help locate and start baiting the kraken.

Everything had been just fine. The wind was whipping Minhyuk’s hair around a little harshly, and the life jacket was a tad too big, but everything was fine. Suddenly, the boat jumped, hopping forward a few feet as the engine stuttered. There was a spray of water that flew up higher suddenly from the back of the boat. Minhyuk stumbled, and Myungjun shouted from somewhere on the boat. A tentacle slid over the back of the boat. The shock was enough to paralyze Minhyuk.

Jinwoo appeared suddenly, hoisting Minhyuk out of the way. A second giant tentacle jostled the boat for a second time. Minhyuk slid, the boat tilted, and his arm tore against a piece of metal sticking out from some item on the boat. It happened so quickly that he didn’t even know what had done it. As Jinwoo scrambled across the small space to him, the boat sped up. The tentacles weren’t far behind.

——————

Minhyuk pulls the arm of his shirt back down, and Sanha looks at the small kraken in the bathtub. “What happened after that?” he says, looking back up at Minhyuk.

Minhyuk shrugs. “I don’t remember.” He leans against the counter. “Jinwoo says I passed out from a combination of shock and blood loss, but they got the kraken out to sea and we went back to shore.”

Sanha frowns, turning around to let the tiny kraken wrap its tentacle around his finger. Minhyuk watches as he plays with it, splashing water, and eventually Sanha sighs.

“Jinwoo says we’re going to give it to someone he knows that can take it out to the ocean. But it’s so small, so what if it gets attacked?”

“No creature is going to attack a kraken, Sanha. I guarantee it.”

“Oh, good, you’re still in here.”

Minhyuk turns around to see Jinwoo walking into the room. In the hall, he can see a large tub of water set on top of a rolling cart. Sanha gets to his feet beside him. The kraken keeps hold of his finger until the last minute.

“Do you want to carry him out to the cart?” Jinwoo says, directing his words at Sanha. “My contact is actually in town, leaving in the morning, and he says he can stop by tonight to pick up the kraken.”

“Where is he going to take him?” Sanha asks. Minhyuk bites back a smile. Sanha sounds like a concerned parent.

“South,” Jinwoo answers. “Around Yeosu, I think.”

Sanha doesn’t say anything.

“Who is he?” Minhyuk asks.

“It’s Taeggyun,” Jinwoo tells him. “You remember him, right?”

“Oh, he’s the guy who helped us out when Dongmin was having trouble, right?.” Jinwoo nods. Minhyuk pats Sanha’s arm comfortingly. “You can trust Taeggyun. He’s like Jinwoo. Knows a lot, super careful with things.”

Sanha nods, slowly. He bends over the tub, lifting the kraken with him when he straightens. Minhyuk follows Jinwoo and Sanha out of the bathroom (after flicking off the light). The kraken flaps its tentacles around in the water. Jinwoo wheels the tub of water away, and when Sanha doesn’t follow, Minhyuk looks at him.

“Are you okay?”

“I’ve never had a pet before,” is all Sanha says. He sighs, turning on his toes and going back into the bathroom.

Minhyuk watches Sanha for a moment. He’s in the bathroom again, cleaning up the water that had spilled out of the tub. Though he doesn’t understand why Sanha got attached to a _kraken_ , he does understand the attachment to having a pet. 

“Do you want to go somewhere with me tomorrow?” Minhyuk asks from across the room.

Sanha looks up from the towel in his hands. The way he blinks with a blank look on his face before responding makes Minhyuk smile.

“Where to?” Sanha asks. “If you’re going to ask me to go hiking or something, I’m going to have to give you a firm _no_. I don’t do the outdoors.”

Minhyuk laughs, and his mood brightens as he sees Sanha’s brighten, too. “No hiking, I promise. I can’t tell you where we’re going to go, though. It’s a secret.”

Sanha tightens his lips into a line, clearly thinking. Minhyuk keeps shifting. He lifts his shoulders, raises his brows, and holds out his hands in a “how about it” sort of gesture. Finally, Sanha laughs as Minhyuk makes an odd face at him.

“Okay, I’ll go with you,” Sanha says. Minhyuk smiles. He knows exactly how to make Sanha feel better.

******

“How much longer?”

Minhyuk rolls his eyes. “I told you already. You’ll find out when we get there.”

“I don’t know why you can’t just tell me where we’re going,” Sanha mumbles. 

Minhyuk bumps his arm against Sanha. “Because it’s a secret.” He pauses. “If you guess it right, I’ll tell you. But good luck guessing it.”

They’ve already been on the bus for about ten minutes. They should be stopping any time now. Sanha is antsy, though, wiggling in his window seat and pushing himself up to look over the chairs in front of them. Minhyuk finds it entertaining.

“Are we going to the mall?” Sanha asks.

“Nope.”

“What about the park?”

“Wrong again.”

Sanha pauses. Minhyuk watches Sanha look around outside, probably trying to guess where they’re going based on their surroundings. He knows Sanha won’t be able to guess it based on their surroundings, though. At least not yet he won’t.

The bus stops again, passengers leaving and new ones getting on. Sanha pouts. “Are we seriously not there yet?”

“The next stop is ours,” Minhyuk tells him. Sanha’s face immediately brightens. Minhyuk likes that the smallest things can make Sanha perk up. He’s so easily made happy.

At the next stop, Sanha almost clambers over Minhyuk’s legs to get off the bus faster. Minhyuk laughs, hurrying out of his seat and off the bus. Sanha is bouncing on his toes. “Okay, where are you taking me?” He’s looking around, and points suddenly. “That’s Han River, right?”

Minhyuk nods. “Yeah, but that’s not where we’re going. We’re getting on the subway next.”

Sanha’s excited look deflates just as quickly as it came. “I won’t be able to guess if we’re underground.” He sighs loudly. “Alright, lead the way.”

Minhyuk shakes his head, smiling, and heads to the subway. The stairs lead down and Minhyuk pulls two subway cards out of the wallet he stuck in his back pocket before they left.

“This one is Myungjun’s,” Minhyuk tells Sanha. “He doesn’t know I took it, though, so don’t tell him.”

Sanha nods, giggling. “Alright.”

They don’t have to wait long before the subway rolls in to stop. People flood off, and Minhyuk gets jostled as they board. It’s like a scene out of a drama. Sanha is thin but tall, and while Minhyuk is short, he knows how to hold his own. They secure a spot for themselves in the cart with only a few inches between them.

“Should’ve left this morning,” Minhyuk mumbles. “So many people use the subways in the middle of the day.”

“It’s not that bad,” Sanha says. The carts spring to life, taking off sharply. Sanha lets out a noise as he’s tossed off balance a little, bumping into someone nearby. He ducks his head in apology. Minhyuk has to cover his mouth to hide his laughter.

“It’s not funny.” Minhyuk smiles, dropping his hand at Sanha’s scolding.

“You’re right, it’s not. I’m sorry.”

Even so, Minhyuk can’t stop smiling. He pokes Sanha’s chest, earning a gasp from the other since he wasn’t expecting it. “You have to admit,” Minhyuk says, “it was a little funny.”

“Bumping into people is rude,” Sanha whines. He drops his head, and Minhyuk can see color in his cheeks from embarrassment. _How cute_ , Minhyuk thinks, and then he immediately averts his eyes.

 _You can’t think of him like that right now_ , Minhyuk tells himself. _This is not a date. You’re just friends._

However, Minhyuk quickly forgets about that line of thinking. The cart empties out some at the next stop, only a few new passengers boarding. The time between stops passes quickly since the subway moves so fast, and because Minhyuk gets lost talking to Sanha. They aren’t really _talking_ about anything. Mostly Sanha is whining about not knowing where they are, and Minhyuk is just teasing him, but it makes the time go by so fast that Minhyuk almost misses their subway stop. He grabs Sanha’s wrist and pulls him out of the cart at almost the last moment.

Minhyuk would be lying if he said he isn’t disappointed when he has to let go of Sanha’s wrist. Holding on could make Sanha uncomfortable, though, so Minhyuk stashes his disappointment to be dealt with at another time. “We’re going this way,” he says instead, gesturing to the escalator leading upwards.

Sanha stands behind him on the escalator, on his toes as he tries to see outside before they’re anywhere near the top. “Jeez, Minhyuk, where _are_ we?”

“You’ll see in a minute,” Minhyuk says, smiling a little.

After a few minutes of walking in the sun, it becomes painfully obvious as to where they’re going. However, Sanha still is throwing out guesses that are way off. Minhyuk doesn’t say much other than quiet dismissals of Sanha’s curious guesses. Finally, _finally_ he gets it.

“The aquarium?” Sanha guesses, sounding tired of guessing.

“Bingo,” Minhyuk says, nodding a little.

Sanha immediately stretches. “We’re going to the aquarium? What for?”

Minhyuk shrugs. “I’ve never been, and I don’t think you would want to hang around in that bunker all the time. It does get boring after a while when you aren’t hiding from fairies or trying to protect the world from werewolf hunters.”

“Werewolf hunters?” Sanha asks, tilting his head.

“That’s a story for another time.” Minhyuk stops at a crosswalk. “You should probably ask Dongmin about that one, actually. He can probably explain it better than I could. I’m still not entirely sure what happened.”

“Was Dongmin hunted by werewolf hunters?” Sanha looks too excited for such a grim topic, but Minhyuk can’t help his smile. “But he isn’t a werewolf.”

“They’re all the same to hunters,” Minhyuk says. “Oh, come on.”

The topic is lost as they follow the crowd of people across the street. Minhyuk feels Sanha grab onto the back of his shirt as the mass of people surges and moves. Is Sanha worried that he’s going to get lost? Minhyuk would never let that happen.

******

It takes a quick three hours for them to get through the aquarium. Honestly, Minhyuk had no idea that the aquarium was so massive. There’s jellyfish in vertical tanks and a room dedicated solely to fish who glow under purple lights. A large, humid room has a shallow pool in the middle with stingrays swimming beside small fish and various corals. When they finally make it to the gift shop at the end of the aquarium, Minhyuk can’t believe it. He laughs, stumbling over his own feet and bumping into Sanha as they try to fly through the pictures.

“I _swear_ that was a shark,” Minhyuk says, wiggling his phone at Sanha. “I promise it was. I’m not crazy.”

“Yeah, sure you aren’t,” Sanha teases right back. “You’re the one who literally said ‘I wonder what it feels like to get stung by a stingray.”

“Okay, you can’t honestly tell me you aren’t even a _little_ curious?” Minhyuk fires back. “Does it hurt? Does it feel like getting shocked? Can you get stung so little that you don’t even know you were stung?”

Sanha giggles, and picks up a stingray plush toy on a nearby display. He pokes Minhyuk with the tail. “There! You’ve been stung.”

Minhyuk rolls his eyes and pushes Sanha gently. “Do you want to take a look around?” he asks, gesturing to the store.

Sanha shakes his head. “I don’t have any money with me, so there’s no reason to. Let’s go.”

“I’ll meet you outside in a minute,” Minhyuk says. “I have to go to the bathroom.”

Ten minutes later, Minhyuk walks outside with his hands behind his back. Sanha is standing with his shoulder against a tree, head bent as he looks at the phone in his hands. Minhyuk smirks. He brings the plush toy he bought to in front of himself and uses it to prod Sanha’s lower back to announce his presence. Sanha immediately jumps, spinning, ready to yell some sort of accusation Minhyuk is sure. When Minhyuk holds up the plush toy, Sanha freezes.

“Oh,” he says. “You bought something.”

“I bought something for _you_ ,” Minhyuk says, wiggling the octopus plush around in the air. “Here, take it.” He holds it out.

Sanha doesn’t move for a moment. He breaks into a smile, taking the toy out of Minhyuk’s hands. “Did you only buy something because I said I didn’t have any money?”

Minhyuk hums. “Maybe. But also, you were really bummed about having to let that kraken go. The plush sort of reminded me of the kraken, so I bought it for you.”

“Oh,” Sanha says, but it’s different than how he said it before. He smiles, hugging the toy to his chest. “I love it. Where are we going now, though? Back to the bunker?”

Minhyuk shakes his head. “Nope. We need to get food. I was getting so hungry in there that I was tempted to eat the food for the stingrays.”

Sanha giggles, pushing Minhyuk’s shoulder lightly. They start walking in the direction of the subway station where there will no doubt be food to buy. Sure enough, half a block away is a gorup of food trucks. Minhyuk buys bread in the shape of fish, and he buys noodles for Sanha (“You want noodles because you’re a noodle,” Minhyuk had teased). There are empty benches nearby, too, so they sit together and eat in silence, the small octopus plush toy separating their hips.

If Minhyuk is standing a little close on the escalator down into the subway station, Sanha doesn’t mind. When they find empty seats, Sanha also doesn’t seem to mind that Minhyuk holds the octopus plush in his lap so he can sit just a few inches closer to Sanha. As they wait for the bus, Sanha doesn’t seem to care that Minhyuk wraps his arm loosely around his back. Even on the bus Sanha is oblivious to Minhyuk pretty much staring at him the entire journey. 

Dongmin has returned to the bunker by the time they get back. When he asks where they went, Minhyuk tells him they went to the aquarium. When he asks Sanha why he has an octopus toy, Sanha doesn’t hide that Minhyuk bought it for him. And when Dongmin asks Sanha why, Sanha shrugs, looks at Minhyuk, and says, “Because he was nice enough to want me to remember something.”

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a month already since _Wings 'n' Things_ was completed!! _Wings 'n' Things_ has also gotten over 800 hits! This quick (unedited, non-proofread) fic is a celebration! (Please excuse any mistakes or bad writing, I didn't have a chance to look it over before posting.) Thanks so much for everybody who has been giving love to the series!


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